Day 13

Day 13
Today we went to Rathenburg. Rathenburg is a nice medieval town about 45 minutes away from where we’re staying and it’s a rather quaint little town. We started out the morning by parking and getting our ticket and guess what. The ink in the parking ticket place didn’t work. So we got a black ticket and with a hope and prayer, we put it in the window. After doing that, we walked the town perimeter by walking the town wall. They’ve got the original town walls still up and you can walk either on top of the walls or through the interior. We opted for the top of the walls. It was pretty foggy, so Cliff got a lot of nature/fog pictures. He likes those for some reason. They have guided town tours, but we didn’t take those. We’re really not ones for guided tours.
After walking the town through the walls, we decided to walk the town. We went in a few shops and did some sight-seeing. We ended up buying a few more Christmas presents. The best thing we found was the continuation to our friend Brooke’s present: a beaver dressed in lederhosen and when you squish it, it yodels. I really hope she likes it. We picked up a few other presents: we got something for Cliff’s dad, a magnet for my other mother, magnet for me and a t-shirt for my mom. My magnet is one that you really have to either know German or have been in Germany to really understand.
We went to the biggest church in town and I wanted to go in and see the inside of the church. The fee to get in the church was 2 Euros a person. Doesn’t that kind of counter the whole idea of a church? Should you really be able to charge people to see the inside of a church? I refuse. I’ll give donations, I’ll give to the poor, but I refuse to pay and admission fee to see the inside of a church. I have a huge problem with this. Like HUGE! I guess it’s like going down to the 1st Baptist Church on the corner of 1st and Main and them charging me a couple of bucks to come in and pray on Sunday. WTH??? I may not be a church goer every Sunday, but that’s not right. I know they have to keep up expenditures and have loads of expenses, but c’mon. Put out a donation box and get donations. I’ll do that. I think I’ve donated about 20 Euros to all the churches I’ve gone to since we’ve been here. The other big church in town closed from 12-2, so I didn’t get to go see it. It’s okay. There should be churches in Nurnberg tomorrow for me to see.
The only museum in town that was open was the criminal museum. OMG. It was friggin’ awesome. It was 4 floors of torture. 4 floors of torture: thumb screws, leg screws, tongue screws, iron maidens, shame masks, execution swords, etc. I think that was about the best 8 Euros I’ve spent the entire time I’ve been here. I wish that Cliff had taken some pictures while we were in the museum. Cliff told me that this says something about my mental state that I enjoyed that more than any other place we’ve been too. It was also the busiest (read most popular) museum that we’ve been to since we’ve been here.
At 5, we had wine with the Baron and had a tour of the castle. I think I had about 4 glasses of white wine. He just kept pouring! But it was very good wine. Cliff said it was one of the driest wines he’s had but it wasn’t dry to me at all. I guess my taste buds really have changed since I started taking my meds. But the castle was very lovely. We saw the converted stables. They have been converted into a dining hall. We also saw the play room for his grand kids. It’s what’s left of a tower and it’s too cute. We also went into the catacombs and saw the coffins of his ancestors. Kinda cool if you ask me. 2 of the caskets are now on tour with mummies of the world. We’re walking though the catacombs and everybody is ducking. I’m walking through like the doors are made just for me. Cliff won’t let me have any “Krishna-size doors” put in the house. Boo on Cliff! We ended the tour with a look at his classic cars. He had a Model T that was from 1913, a 1961 Benz, an ooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllllllllldddddddddddddddddd Caddy and another car. They were all pretty sweet. I want the Benz.
So…..I’m outta here!
Me